On my sport blog, I recently did a few “Who/what’s better – A or B”
posts. It was fun – it’s obviously reductive and far more subjective when it
comes to music than sport, but I thought it would be nice to do a series of
these, not least because it starts as a way to write the following post in a
simple way.
Oddly, I’ve been trying to write this post for about four years –
it’s literally just a comparison of two pop songs, but each time I’ve tried I’ve
found myself going down so many blind alleys, torturing myself with how to say
a simple thing correctly.
So, the simple thing is, I prefer ‘A Design for Life’ by The Manic
Street Preachers to ‘Common People’ by Pulp.
These are the two great class-based indie anthems of the mid-90s, one
a Number 2 in spring 95, one a Number 2 in spring 96.
What I instinctively felt about ‘Common People’ I still feel now.
It’s wrong. It doesn’t earn the right to be anthemic.
This is an oddly delicate point for me to make, which necessarily
leads me to being open to accusations of entitlement and privilege. Weird, isn’t
it?
Jarvis Cocker tells a story (of doubtful truth) of a certain kind
of rich/posh person who wants to slum it for a while with the “common people” Of
course, these people do exist, but, you know what, not that many of them.
Not enough for the song to then become a universal anthem, which people
claimed told a timeless truth about the British class system. That, above all,
was what bothered me. The song was catchy and witty sure, but it was
disingenuous and over-inflated.
Here’s a caveat for my overthought views. I never felt I was a
Pulp person. I saw Pulp people around, and they were skinnier than me, had
better hair, and were the kind of people who sneered at you for liking sport, I
thought. Pulp sang for the mis-shapes but I felt they had to be a certain shape
of mis-shape.
Whereas the Manics … they did songs about communism, despair,
death penalty, art movements, bulimia, sure…. but they also did songs about
Matthew Maynard and Steve Ovett. They were beautifully different but also
beautifully mundane. I had no problem being a Manics fan, because I didn’t feel
the Manics had “typical” fans.
So I was never on board with Pulp.
The target of ‘Common People’ is, if you will, the “good posh”.
Not the indifferent, heartless ones, but the ones who at least show a movement
towards empathy and understanding the world. And the lyric to ‘Common People’ picks
on the kind who play lip service but are really just engaging in class tourism.
But my genuine experience is that that’s a vastly overstated
group. Actually overwhelmingly the good posh aren’t trying to fuck about and
they end up living a life – early signs of empathy, even crassly expressed, are
likely going to lead to a life with some element of value and of consideration.
These people are not the problem, not really. It’s the ones who
have absolutely no fucking interest what the “common people” are doing who are
the problem.
If ‘Common People’ had been a little story-song, I’d be fine with
it, but I hate its expansion, its epic quality. It’s a con. It’s a clever trick
by a clever writer.
I will say that a) Jarvis Cocker has written some beautiful
poignant songs and b) he’s written one brilliant, simple, universal anthem, ‘Running
the World’, which is every kind of unquestionable, fiery truth that ‘Common
People’ is not.
As is ‘A Design for Life’, which I love more every year. I love
its sound, I suppose I think if you’re going to go big, go all out. I love its proud,
redemptive place in the lifeline of the band, I love its defiance, its
positivity, its fury, its simplicity, I love its target – the universal subjugation
of and careless condescension to the British working-class. It rings true. The
Manics are a true British liberal’s ideal (probably something they’d despise) –
the childhood oddball friends who went on to be the smartest, the most humane,
the longest-lasting and the most popular.
They deserve every accolade. Sure, Jarvis Cocker and others write
archer, wittier lyrics (which scan better sometimes …) but there’s a truth and
beauty to this band which you rarely find. Certainly not in ‘Common People’.
Right, done. That’s the short, unwhiny version …
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